Gaming systems have evolved from those which provided an isolated gaming experience to networked systems providing a rich, interactive experience which may be shared in real time between friends and other gamers. With Microsoft's Xbox® video game system and Xbox LIVE® online game service, multiple users in remote locations can participate together in a single game session.
The interactivity in some games is such that all players remain present and interact throughout the life of the game session. Combat-based games are one such example. These games are typically played over a synchronous network connection, which may remain open so that a central server pushes game state to all users continuously. Synchronous gaming may also occur via a peer-to-peer network connection where the players are communicating in real time with each other. In contrast, other games are played with far more latency, sometimes spanning long periods of time between actions. Turn-based games are such examples. In turn-based games, a user takes a turn and performs some action in the game, and then may need to wait for a responsive move from one or more other users in the game session before getting another turn.
Some turn-based games may be played via a synchronous network connection (either through a central server or via a peer-to-peer connection). However, given the latency between turns at times, this may result in an inefficient use of network bandwidth and resources, as well as adding expense in maintaining the connection. Some turn-based games may alternatively be played via an asynchronous network connection, where a central server maintains game state for an ongoing session, and users may intermittently login at different times, query data from the central server to learn the status of the game session and possibly to take additional actions. Asynchronous network connections work well for latent game sessions, but may be too slow, and result in inefficiencies in establishing and dropping network connections, when the pace of play speeds up.